Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Anything to do with Propulsion.
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KR2_Diving
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Location: Currently: NW Suburbs of Chicago. Originally: NE Wisconsin

Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by KR2_Diving »

Bindo wrote:Hi Ryan,

Yeah generally you want the punch set to max.... if you were running this ESC on a car, you'd use punch to adjust the throttle according to track grip. think of it as "ramp up time"

menu 1, should be 3 for best response.
reverse speed max,
drag brake max,
and timing, from memory, i have set to the middle setting.
Will Try now!
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KR2_Diving
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Joined: Aug 30th, 2012, 11:43 am
Location: Currently: NW Suburbs of Chicago. Originally: NE Wisconsin

Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by KR2_Diving »

Ok... I tried it...
Here is the results:


Settings:

ESC Settings: (ESC : Drag : Brake Strength : Punch) left to right
1 : 100% : 20% : 30%
2 : 0% :20% : 80%
3 : 100% : 100% : 100%
4 : 100% : 100% : 80%

Still not happy with what I am seeing...
Bindo
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Joined: Apr 7th, 2015, 4:42 pm

Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by Bindo »

Hi Ryan,

They don't look a million miles away from what i had, though you should try with a prop on, brushless motors really need a bit of mass/drag to start properly.

when i put props on mine they start almost instantly
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olegodo
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Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by olegodo »

I would try, Punch 100%, Brake 0%,for me it just ads delay when going from fwd to reverse and should not be needed four our purpose anyways really. I don't have an option for Drag on my ESC's, so unsure about that one.
Also, have you calibrated your throttle range? This makes a big difference.
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KR2_Diving
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Joined: Aug 30th, 2012, 11:43 am
Location: Currently: NW Suburbs of Chicago. Originally: NE Wisconsin

Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by KR2_Diving »

Bindo wrote:...you should try with a prop on, brushless motors really need a bit of mass/drag to start properly...
Hmm... Had not considered that... thanks! Will see if i can dig out my old props/adapters.
olegodo wrote:Also, have you calibrated your throttle range? This makes a big difference.
Not exactly sure what you mean here... I have done some simple mapping.
Full Fwd = 180 and Full Rev = 0
I write "val" to the thruster out.

Code: Select all

potval = analogRead(0);
val = map(potval, 0, 1023, 0, 180);
@olegodo - is this what you mean?
Bindo
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Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by Bindo »

Yeah you need to calibrate the throttle range, it's mentioned briefly in the instructions. It's pretty critical for getting motors synced
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olegodo
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Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by olegodo »

This procedure is more or less the same with most esc's, but the beeps and so on are different between the different makes I believe.

For my Hobbyking 50 and 30A esc's the procedure was:
1: Give full throttle forwards. In the youtube video below he uses a RC remote for this, but anything that can control a servo/esc should be fine.
2: Connect your esc to power and wait for it to beep. Remember that the beeps probably are different from what is shown in the video. See your manual.
3: As soon as the beebs stop (in my case it was two beeps) give full reverse signal.
4: Give full reverse signal until you hear one beep.
5: Give neutral signal. This last step should determine the center point of throttle witch will be where the motor will stop.



Before I did this my throttle was uneven from forwards and reverse. After this was done it was exactly the same in both directions.
Note that an arduino can send a wider range signal then what the esc might be made for. However using servo library and 180 to 0 should be ok.
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KR2_Diving
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Joined: Aug 30th, 2012, 11:43 am
Location: Currently: NW Suburbs of Chicago. Originally: NE Wisconsin

Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by KR2_Diving »

Ahh... THAT calibration!
I did that probably 2 years ago when I bought the ESCs... but haven't revisited since...
Will try that again tonight to see if it helps!

EDIT:
Did a bit of work last night and re-calibrated the ESC, as well as added the props to provide some resistance/load to the motors. Only slight improvement noted.
Will post some details later this evening.

As a side note:
When testing my PS2 Controller, I noticed that with my mapping functions and vectored control mixing, Neutral turned out to be 96 and not 90... by re calibrating the ESCs, I was able to account for this. I guess this does mean I might have a slightly lopsided control curve, but I am going to mark this down as a non-issue.
Bindo
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Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by Bindo »

Yeah i have a slightly lopsided curve too, even after manually calibrating everything with the serial monitor....

Might have to look at further coding to compensate.

I'm also looking at 2x ESC's from TomTop, both are £5-6, on is rated @ 20A, the other 25A

It'll be interesting to see if no name Chinese ESC's perform better than the HK ones
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KR2_Diving
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Joined: Aug 30th, 2012, 11:43 am
Location: Currently: NW Suburbs of Chicago. Originally: NE Wisconsin

Re: Turnigy TrackStar 18A ESC

Post by KR2_Diving »

This might all be a moot point for me anyway...

My BlueRobotics T100 with built in ESC should be here later today!! I am planning on switching to I2C comms to run all my thrusters...

If I can figure out the firmware flashing thing...
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